Each year I make revisions and updates to the LSAT Bibles, and there are several different reasons for that. First, at least three new LSATs are released each year, and I like to make changes to some of the content to account for new directions taken by the test makers. Second, I talk with many different LSAT students and also teach various sessions throughout the year, and the feedback I receive helps me shape and improve parts of each book. And, finally, as I discussed last year, the books have changed so much over time that providing new versions each year helps students know they are getting the most up-to-date versions possible.

Because of this, one of the most common questions we receive is: what has changed, and do I need to get the newest editions? So that's what I'll be talking about in this post.

First, the good news is that all three 2018 LSAT Bibles have been changed and updated, and we have made the newest versions available for preorder on our website. They will be fully in stock over the next few weeks.

Next, let's discuss the changes book by book, starting with the one I worked on first:

In the past several years, this book has grown quite a bit. I have been remaking the focus of the RCB slowly but surely, in order to create a more fluid approach to reading each passage, and also to provide a broader set of tools for breaking down text and decoding meaning. I've also added extensive new sections that help diagnose and eliminate problematic areas you might have in RC.

All of these changes have been done on top of prior revisions that changed our approach to passage diagramming and Comparative Reading question types, as well as other previous changes. The newest version represents what I consider to be a solid improvement on all prior editions of this book, and the individual 2018 RCB edition will ship out prior to Christmas.

The additions came from new discussions of key concepts, including how rules operate inside games, and when and why you need to track certain rule types. Plus, I expanded multiple drill sets in the book by adding new items. I did this in response to student requests for additional problems in the LGB, and these new items give readers more opportunities to work with the techniques and see the concepts in action.

Given the major changes to the LGB in 2016 (which invalidated all prior versions), only the 2017 and 2018 versions should be used, with 2018 being the superior version of the two.

The first focus of 2018's changes was to add some clarity to the argument discussion elements that I feel had previously been too thin. These are key additions that help make analyzing arguments faster and easier, but that was only the beginning. I also added sections that ranged from discussions of Nested Conditionals and Not Forcing Conditionality in Chapter 6, the Concorde Fallacy in Chapter 15, Properly Solving Parallel Questions in Chapter 15, and How Cannot Be True Questions Operate in Chapter 19. In other words, a wide variety of elements designed to help students not only understand the ideas more easily, but also, and more importantly, apply the techniques properly.

In each case, these additions addressed some of the most frequent questions I had been receiving about applying our techniques, and in particular correct some common misconceptions about how these ideas work on the test. 2018 is easily the best version of the LRB, and thus gives students the best chance of success on this section.